The current era is about technology changing daily, with extensive work on the internet and the cyber attacks benefitting from it simultaneously. Security information and event management (SIEM) is a consolidation of security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM).
They perform together, providing the best defenses to the organization’s system. Security information and event management monitors real-time and analyzes events while tracking and logging the security data for any breaches or attacks.
It aids companies in recognizing vulnerabilities and threats before they go too far to harm the system or access sensitive data. SIEM provides essential security insights. Security teams use it for the identification of suspicious events and to keep records.
How Does SIEM Work?
The SIEM system deploys various agents to collect security-related cases from users’ devices, network equipment, and servers. The agents are arranged in a hierarchical form and watch the security tools such as antivirus software, firewalls, or intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
SIEM aggregates data and sorts and consolidates functionalities to observe data compliance. The SIEM systems might be different in capabilities, but the system’s core functions are similar.
Managing The Logs
The event data of extensive sources in the organization’s network is captured. Data flow and logs from applications, assets, cloud environments, users, and networks are collected, analyzed, and saved in real-time. The cyber security and IT staff automatically manage the event’s logs and data flow of the entire network in a single location.
SIEM systems integrate third-party intelligence to associate their internal security data against the threats profiles spotted previously. This integration with real-time threat feeds allows cybersecurity teams to detect and block the latest attacks.
Event Correlation And Analysis
One of the most integral parts of the SIEM system is the event correlation. By making use of advanced analytics for understanding and identifying data patterns, event correlation is a source of locating insights and remediating potential threats to organizations’ safety.
SIEM solution improves mean time to respond (MTTR) and mean time to detect (MTTD) for security officials. It lessens the workload of the IT team for analysis of security events and sifting the suspicious content from the millions of them.
Monitoring And Security Alerts
SIEM allows centralized management of the cloud-based networks and the infrastructure and can therefore recognize all structures of the IT environment. All devices, users, and applications are monitored for any event considered abnormal in the network.
The predefined and customizable correlation terms are used so administrators can get instant alerts to take effective actions to mitigate the attack before it develops into a greater security concern.
Reporting And Compliance Management
The physical security measures are no longer effective in protecting the data. SIEM provides an effective cyber security solution for protecting the organization’s environment and sensitive environment. The automated compilation of data and its analysis proves beneficial for collecting and verifying compliance data across the company’s infrastructure.
SIEM can create real-time compliance reports for GDPR, HIPPA, PCI-DSS, SOX, and other compliance standards. This offloads the pressure from security management and finds potential threats in time before it mitigates the system.
Some SIEM solutions provide pre-built add-ons that can provide automated reports to reach compliance requirements.
History Of SIEM
The term SIEM was coined by Gartner Inc for the first time in 2005. The SIEM technology existed in the 2000s and is used in different forms for log management discipline, transmission, storage, analysis, and disposal of massive amounts of log data generated within an information system.
SIM introduced reporting and storage analysis of log data integrated with threat intelligence. Security Event Management was used for addressing the identification, monitoring, reporting, and collection of security-related incidents in software and IT infrastructures.
The vendors came up with SIEM by merging SIM and SEM for analyzing log and event data in real-time while providing event correlation, threat monitoring, and reports on log data.
Advantages Of SIEM
When it comes to securing the organization, the size does not matter. Every organization must take proactive steps to watch and diminish IT security risks carefully. SIEM solution secures enterprises in numerous ways and is essential to streamlining protection.
A few benefits provided by SIEM include the following:
Identification Of Real-Time Threat
The agile monitoring by SIEM solution across the entire network infrastructure reduced the time to recognize and take action against potential threats and vulnerabilities. This aids to strengthens security measures taken by the organization.
Regulatory Compliance Auditing
Centralized compliance auditing and reporting from across the business system are possible with SIEM solutions. The advanced automation system results in gathering the data and analyzing them in a smooth process. This reduces the number of resources used without compromising on meeting the required standards of compliance reporting.
AI-Driven Automation
The advanced SIEM solutions are integrated with strong Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) proficiencies that save resources and time for IT, officials, as they manage other segments of system security. These solutions can control complex incident response and threat recognition in less time than humans can.
Better Organizational Efficiency
SIEM upgrades efficiency by providing better networking environment visibility and improving interdepartmental productivity. The single view of integrated SOAR and system data can allow the teams to collaborate and communicate efficiently when reacting to perceived security events.
Limitations Of SIEM
The benefits of SIEM are plenty, but there are also some limitations. They are discussed below:
Time Is Taken For Installation
SIEM systems are installed over 90 days. This long period might not always be convenient for the company. It takes as long as it requires support to integrate the hosts into the infrastructure and their security controls.
SIEM Is Expensive
SIEM systems are resourceful; initial investment can cost as much as a thousand dollars. The associated costs, such as salaries of professionals to monitor and manage SIEM annual support, implementation, and data collection, also add up.
Experts Are Required
Professional services are required for configuring, analyzing, and integrating reports. The SIEM systems are directly managed within a security operations center (SOC), a centralized unit complemented by an information security team. It also deals with a company’s security issues.
Identification Of Threats
The threats can become difficult to detect as the SIEM tools rely on the rules for analyzing the recorded data. There are thousands of alerts on a company’s net, including false positives, and it’s hard to identify potential attacks due to its large number.
Detection Of Threats
The cybersecurity environment is changing rapidly, with new and advanced threats coming the way of organizations. This makes it important for them to apply solutions that can effectively respond to both new and old threats.
By using AI technology and integrated threat intelligence, SIEM solutions can successfully address the latest security breaches like the ones discussed below:
Insider Threats
At times the company staff authorized to access the company’s networks and digital assets can become the source of attacks on the organization due to compromised credentials.
Phishing Attacks
The most popular attack method combines social engineering to play with the users’ minds to break through the system. They mask as trusted sources and steal login credentials, user data, financial details, and other sensitive information.
SQL Injections
SIEM solutions are effective against SQL injections. The malicious code is injected into the system after trespassing the security measure through a compromised application or web page, which aims to modify, add or delete SQL database records.
Data Exfiltration
Data theft occurs when hackers get access to the accounts by cracking through easy-to-guess passwords or using Advanced Persistent Threat or APT. This can be avoided by SIEM solutions and securing the loss of sensitive information or malware attacks.
DDoS Attacks
SIEM helps to protect the systems through a Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, which bombards systems and networks with massive traffic which is difficult to control, degrading the operation of websites and servers.
Top SIEM Tools
The security information and event management tools and services facilitate the organization with a comprehensive view of an organization’s information security.
The tools provide real-time visibility of the entire organization’s security systems and event log management that combines data from various sources and has a response plan for vulnerabilities and threats. Some of the SIEM tools include the following:
Splunk
One of the leading SIEM software providers, Splunk is a powerful platform offering enterprise observability, limitless custom application, and advanced threat detection abilities.
IBM QRadar
This unique SIEM system can be applied as a software appliance, virtual appliance, or hardware appliance, according to the demands and needs of the enterprise.
The IBM Cloud Based and the QRadar SIEM product delivers QRadar on Cloud as a cloud service.
RSA
RSA NetWitness Platform detects threats and has response tools, including data acquisition, storage, forwarding, and analysis. It also offers SOAR.
LogRhythm
The SIEM product LogRhythm suits smaller organizations the most. It unifies SIEM, network monitoring, log management, and security analysis.
SIM Vs. SIEM
SIM, or security information management, is a tool that provides reporting and analysis of security events that took place in the past. SIM systems operate for gathering the log data from different security tools and systems and convey that information to the security managers.
SIEM, on the other hand, resembles SIM, but instead of focusing on the old data log, it works in the current situation to recognize incidents that have relevance for security professionals. The SIEM system combines SIM and SEM in one form.
Future Of SIEM
Artificial intelligence will become crucial in the future of SIEM, as the system’s capabilities for decision-making will upgrade as its cognitive capabilities improve. SIEM will enable systems to grow and adapt as the endpoint users increase.
Cloud, mobile, and IoT technologies add to the amount of data consumed by SIEM tools. AI offers a solution that supports greater data types and a detailed understanding of the evolving threat situations.
SIEM Implementation Best Practices
Follow some of the following practices when implementing SIEM:
It’s important to fully understand the scope of the implementation of SIEM in your business and how it will benefit from its setup. Tune your SIEM configurations regularly, ensuring the false positives are eradicated from the security alerts.
Recognize the business compliance requirements and check that the SIEM system is configured to audit and report according to these standards in real-time.
When managing the collection of log data, detecting access abuses, and monitoring network activity, cataloging and classifying digital assets across the organization will be crucial.
Investing In MSSP
To manage the deployments by SIEM, evaluate the possibility of investing in an MSSP. Because of the unique requirements of the businesses, Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) might handle the complexities of the SIEM implementation along with managing and maintaining its continual functionalities.
Traditional SIEM Vs. Next-Gen SIEM
The latest and traditional SIEM functions in a similar manner. But the traditional SIEM cannot handle the increasing volume of data with its complexities.
The ever-changing technology with cloud adoption, hybrid data centers, mobile technologies, and remote workforces are better suited to next-gen SIEM. It can meet the increasing demand for detecting and responding to threats across diverse systems.
The next-gen SIEM solution gives new ways for better threat detection and security visibility while offloading the workload from the security teams. Core capabilities of next-gen SIEM include the following:
Tools For Real-Time Visualization
Features that allow a cybersecurity team to visualize common security incidents to illustrate threat events accurately.
Streamline Disparate Data
The data from diverse systems can be streamlined across cloud, mobile, and on-prem in a single entity.
Large Data Architecture
The latest SIEM can manage and collect complex and extensive data sets for indexing unstructured or structured searches.
Is SIEM The Best Solution?
Security must be prioritized for any organization regardless of its size. Before deploying any solution, consider the amount of data involved or your company’s budget. SIEM solutions serve in different places, such as forensic investigations, auditing, and compliance reporting.
SIEM solutions integrate machine learning, which can come in handy when sorting events as false positives or real threats. This can particularly be handy when investigating events of the past.
Final Remarks
For the safety of the systems and information of businesses, the application of security tools is essential. There are many options in the market, and deploying the one that suits the needs according to the budget and data is important.
SIEM technology offers an intrusion detection system, analyzes events, and identifies suspicious events. The system sends an automated report to the concerned security officials right away. The SIEM software provides a comprehensive report of organization security across its entire network.
The combination of AI technology provides real-time monitoring and helps to differentiate false positives from real threats, saving the time of security officials and reducing their workload. SIEM is the latest method of defending systems against threats and is one of the most effective. Businesses must apply what suits them the best.
